Fils Flies for First M1000 Title in Cincinnati over Tiafoe in 6-0 3rd | Monday Match Analysis

**Gill Gross** (0:03)
Welcome, everyone, to Monday Match Analysis. I'm Gill Gross. Arthur Fils is a Masters 1000 champion for the first time in his career. He takes Cincinnati, winning a Topsy Turvy three-set final against Frances Tiafoe, six, love in the third. Hello from my New York hotel room. Not the prettiest background, but this is how you'll be seeing me for the next 15-plus days. I'm here through the quarterfinals, very much looking forward to it, as always, my favorite little stretch of the year. I'm gonna keep the content flowing as best I can, and I'll keep the content flowing. It'll be pretty good. So, excited for the next few weeks, but let's get into this Cincy final, which was not a match that really brought the drama that we were probably looking for, that we love so much in a tennis match. It was very undramatic, as all three sets really became foregone conclusions pretty quickly, but despite the uneven nature of the final, I view it as a great display from Arthur Fils. I view it as a decisive victory, a convincing victory for Fils, two out of the three sets where he was never really under threat, particularly on his serve. And watching what he did in the third set, the way he served, the way he hit his forehand, he made 20 out of his 22 total forehands, and we know it's the biggest forehand in the world, I don't know that there's really anything. Now, certainly Tiafoe maybe could have kept it closer if the American brought his best level, but I don't know that there's anything Frances can do to really reach that altitude, the kind of altitude that Fils can reach with his level. So in that way, I don't really think we were cheated, and it has felt like for Fils, this breakthrough has been coming. Of course, he's missed a lot of time with injury. And whenever that's the case, I do look to ELO rating as a tool that I think can be specifically helpful in assessing what a player's level is when they have missed a lot of time with injury, because ELO does not penalize for injury like our regular ranking system does. Fees is fifth in ELO. And I said coming into the quarter, coming into the semifinals rather, that among all of the players remaining, we knew as soon as Taylor Fritz lost that there was going to be a first time 1000 champion. I think Fees is the most credible US Open contender that there could have been, regardless really of the Cincinnati result, but certainly now that he has taken the title in Cincinnati, especially because there's been a pattern in recent years of the Cincinnati winner going on to win the US Open. But I think the reason why Fees among those semi-finalists was the most credible US Open contender was because of his explosivity ceiling. I've said it before this year, but Fees has the raw materials that will give him a chance to compete with the very, very best. The raw materials will give him a chance against Sinner and Alcaraz. When I say raw materials, I mean the foot speed and the weight of shot and the twitchy, explosive athleticism. That stuff was there right away, but then you need some polishing, right? Like, there are certain things, that stuff you can't teach. It's not learned. It's a little more natural. Not that you don't put in a lot of hard work to develop technique that gives you the ability to unlock power and you work hard in the gym to get more explosive. That's all true, but there is a certain element of that that's just kind of unteachable.
You also need some polishing. You also need to show that you can develop your game. This is where Feast has really impressed me. This is where it's brought me to the next level of feeling as if Feast could be a number one in the world and could very well win majors, which is he has shown a propensity to develop. He's brought his toss down. He shortened his forehand take back. He's dropped his weight so that he can be a little bit more speedy around the court. His natural body type is a little bit heavier, but they found, well, maybe I can get injured less if I drop a little weight to take stress off my body. These are all things that take sacrifice, that take an adaptability, a lack of stubbornness.
These are things that makes me think that Feast is going to mold into a champion. Of very, very big events in this sport, of the important events in this sport. Discipline and shot selection has also definitely increased. So with all that said, Feast is just getting scarier and scarier. I can't wait to delve into the specifics of this match, but before we do that, let's talk about something else that's scary. The internet these days. Very, very scary world, and it's only getting worse. Nobody is safe from phishing, scams, malware or ransomware. But as a YouTuber, I'm constantly getting suspicious emails from purported advertisers trying to hack me. So last year, I fell for one of them at the US Open actually, and I could have lost my YouTube account. Ever since I started taking my online security more seriously, and I started using NordVPN, the sponsor of today's show. It has a built-in next-gen antivirus program to protect against malware, dangerous websites and ads, and it combines all of these useful cybersecurity features all into one subscription. It is an all-in-one digital security app, but of course, there's also the core VPN functionality, which is huge for me, something I use all the time. This year, tennis has taken me to France, England and Canada, and VPNs allow you to access all of your favorite streaming subscriptions from abroad. This definitely came in handy a few weeks ago when I was back in my hotel room in Toronto, and I needed to stay across the National Bank Open matches using my Tennis Channel app subscription, which ordinarily would be blacked out in Canada. So to get the best discount off your NordVPN plan, go to nordvpn.com/mondaymatch.